A serial killer who drains his victims' blood is on the loose in London. The police follow him to a house owned by an eccentric scientist.
In London, a serial-killer drains the blood of females and the Detective Superintendent Bellaver and his team are hunting down the so-called Vampire Killer. Meanwhile in an undefined country that lives a military dictatorship, the cruel Konratz is climbing positions killing The Power that Be. When the Vampire Killer flees from the police, he seeks refugee at the real estate of scientist Dr. Browning and jumps into a tank of acid. Dr. David Sorel is intrigued with the powerful acid and decides to get a sample. He finds the truth about the research of Dr. Browning.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
A London jogger suddenly collapses on the sidewalk and awakens in ahospital where he finds that his right leg has been amputated. Shortlythereafter, his left leg is amputed, followed by the amputation of botharms. He can get no information from his zombielike nurse. Meanwhile,somewhere in a Gestapo-like country in Eastern Europe, military agentKonratz [Marshall Jones] lets slip to his superior, Captain Salis [Peter Sallis], that he knows about thetop-secret K-718. Because K-718 is classified information supposed to beknown only to Salis and his superior, Major Benedek [Peter Cushing], Salis tries tocontact Benedek, but Konratz kills Salis before the call goes through.With Salis dead, Konratz moves up into his position. When Benedek decidesto dismiss Konratz from duty because his methods of interrogation are tooextreme and will not reflect nicely upon their military regime, Konratzkills Benedek and moves into Benedek's position.
London Detective Superintendent Bellaver [Alfred Marks] also has his hands full witha series of killings that have been dubbed the "vampire murders." Girlsare being found with their throats slashed, puncture wounds on their arms,and drained of blood. The first was Eileen Stevens, an employee ofesteemed research scientist, Doctor Browning [Vincent Price], but Browning has no idea whowould want to murder her. When another girl turns up dead and Bellaverrealizes that they were both picked up at The Busted Pot (a disco club),policewoman Sylvia [Judy Huxtable] goes undercover (with a homing device planted in hershoe) to see if she can get picked up by the vampire. She is successful,and she and the vampire Keith [Michael Gothard] drive to a secluded field where he attemptsto drink her blood. Keith is interrupted by the police but manages to bestthem all and get away. Fortunately, Sylvia's shoe is still in Keith's car,so the police tail him. Keith drives to a chalk quarry where the policeare astounded to see him running up the almost sheer cliff face...until heslips and falls back down. Because he is only stunned, the police handcuffKeith to a car, but he tears off his hand and runs away...straight to DrBrowning's estate where he jumps into a vat of acid.
When questioned about the acid, Browning explains that his researchinvolves investigating strains of bacteria on animal tissue, so he usesthe acid to destroy the tissue and prevent the spread of disease. WhyKeith would have made for this acid vat, Browning has no idea but assumesthat Keith must have known Eileen Stevens and that she told him about it.Of course, this leaves no body to autopsy. Much to Browning's dismay,however, Bellaver still has Keith's hand. Bellaver asks the coroner,Doctor David Sorel, [Christopher Matthews] to perform an autopsy on it. It turns out to be madeof a synthetic material with human tissue growing around it, cyborg style.
British Intelligence Minister Fremont [Christopher Lee] has problems of his own, too.One of Britain's military aircraft has been shot down while on a spymission over the pseudoGestapo country. Konratz has taken the pilotprisoner and travels to London to meet with Fremont and suggest atrade...the pilot for all the investigation files compiled on the vampiremurders. Fremont agrees, orders Bellaver to close the case, and arrangesfor Konratz, posing as a University professor doing research on thepsychological aspects of crimes of violence, to view the files. Konratzhas other ideas, however, and wants to take the files with him. WhenBellaver refuses to release the files, Konratz puts the squeeze onBellaver's shoulder, killing him.
Dr Sorel decides to continue the investigation on his own.Accompanied by policewoman Sylvia, Sorel drives to Browning's estate,intending to get a sample of the acid from the vat into which Keithjumped, but the vat has been emptied. Even worse, Sylvia (who was waitingin the car) also disappears, so Sorel goes snooping in Browning's housewhere he finds an operating room and some freezer boxes containing humanbody parts.
Suddenly, Sorel is interrupted by Browning who explains that his realresearch involves the creation of ubermenches...perfect humans. Toaccomplish this, Browning has developed a method whereby he forgestogether synthetic materials with human flesh into a "composite". Atfirst, the composites were merely robots, like the nurse. Keith was thefirst autonomously-operating composite, but something went wrong and Keithran amok as a vampire. As he is currently preparing to transplant thebrain of a human into the cranium of a new composite, Browning invitesSorel to watch the operation. Sorel is intrigued, but when he finds outthat Sylvia is to be the donor, he tries to stop Browning, only to findthat Browning is a composite, too.
Luckily for Sorel, Konratz (who is also a composite) has picked justthis moment to pay a visit to co-conspirator Browning in order to shutdown his research, since news of the vampire murders has made headlinesall over the world. As Konratz and Browning battle each other, Sorelreleases Sylvia from the operating table. The two of them escapeoutside...where Fremont has just driven up. While Sylvia and Sorel wait inthe car, Fremont goes into the operating room where Konratz has managed toshove the nurse into another vat of acid, and Browning has done the sameto Konratz. Browning informs Fremont that they must round up the othercomposites before it's too late, but Fremont informs Browning that it'salready too late and forces him into the vat of acid.
As Fremont, Sorel, and Sylvia drive away, Sorel asks Fremont if it'sall over, and Fremont replies, "It's only just beginning." [Original Synopsis bybj_kuehl.]
